App Turns Small Change Into Bail Donations For Black People

A serial entrepreneur partners with a criminal justice advocacy group to help reform the unjust incarceration system.

Tech entrepreneur Kortney Ziegler is behind a new app that lets users accumulate their spare change to help bail Black people out of jail, Konbini.com reported.

“Although bail relief via an app isn’t the perfect solution to true abolishment of the prison industrial complex, being able to provide a tiny dent in the system along the way is always important. Supporting the work that prison abolitionists are already doing, is my contribution,” Ziegler stated.

Ziegler and Tiffany Mikell cofounded Appolition.us in partnership with National Bail Out, a network of organizations working to “end money bail” and, in the meantime, help to return incarcerated Black people to their families when they can’t afford to pay bail. A disproportionate number of Black people are jailed every day, where they languish often for months–sometimes years–because they cannot come up with bail money.

The app works by linking to a banking account. It rounds up regular purchases to the nearest dollar and donates the accumulated funds. “Our short-term goals are to get as many folks home for the holidays as possible,” Ziegler told the pop culture site. “Long term, we see the platform being used in a variety of ways to bolster the voices of those in need beyond just a financial contribution.” The serial entrepreneur is also behind Trans*H4ck, a company that merges transadvocacy and technology, the East Bay Express reported. He also directed the acclaimed 2008 documentary “STILL BLACK: A Portrait of Black Transmen,” which examines the intersections of masculinity, blackness, and the transgender experience.